Criticism of AANES officials over government curricula
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – On Tuesday, residents and workers of the educational field criticized some officials of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) for sending their children to schools of the Syrian government, amid calls for the AANES o take stricter measures to prevent “these abuses.”
For years, the issue of education in the Jazira region, northeast Syria, has been considered controversial, as there are two educational curricula, one of which is of the Autonomous Administration and the other is of the Syrian government.
In 2015, the Autonomous Administration adopted the system of education according to “mother languages,” ensuring that in addition to learning the language of the other communities, the students have the right to formally learn in their own languages.
This step led to the abolition of the educational system adopted in Syria for decades, which is the education in Arabic only.
However, opponents of the Autonomous Administration, especially the Kurdish National Council in Syria (ENKS) described the move as “hasty.” They said that “The Autonomous Administration curricula are not recognized, which puts the students’ future at risk,” according to previous statements by the ENKS officials.
According to statistics released by the AANES, about 789,225 students attend 4,137 schools of the AANES.
With the release of the results of the baccalaureate exams for students of the Syrian government’s curricula, the issue of education resurfaced with criticism directed to officials of the administration “who demand the population to study their curricula but they themselves send their children to the regime’s schools.”
Mahdiya Muhammad, 46, a resident of Qamishli, linked “the preference for the regime’s curricula to the inferiority that these people feel.”
She said in a voice statement to North Press that this matter would harm the reputation of the administration, criticizing these abuses, as she described them.
Muhammad called on the Autonomous Administration to hold accountable its employees who prefer the government curricula over administration one, in addition to enacting a law that prevents children of the Administration’s employees from attending the government’s schools.
On November 29, 2018, the Executive Council in the Jazira Region issued a decision prohibiting the children of employees and officials of the Autonomous Administration from enrolling in schools of the Syrian government.
The decision was preceded by an internal circular from the Education Board to all its teachers, not to send their children to the government schools, with accountability and to be dismissed from work, according to Farida Ibrahim, the co-chair of the Schools Management in “Qamishlo Region”.
“Our position is consistent,” Ibrahim told North Press, “any teacher prefers the government curriculum, is dismissed from work, unless he\she pledges not to send his/her children to the government schools again.”
As for the number of teachers dismissed from work by the Education Board, the educational official did not mention the real number, but confirmed that it is a “good number,” as she put it.
Ibrahim criticized the Executive Council because “some of its employees send their children to the government schools.”
Nazira Gawriya, the co-chair of the Executive Council of the Jazira Region, said in a telephone conversation with North Press that the decision is still valid.
Gawriya talked about measures they took at the beginning of the school year, such as issuing warnings and written pledges, but she mentioned the existence of abuses.
She considered this preference to be a contradiction between words and action, which, according to her, is linked to “national sense.”
They would discuss that issue in the coming period, without disclosing the mechanism for dealing with officials of the Autonomous Administration who sent their children to the government schools, she said.